


It Was Never About Love

by tortoises_in_love



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Mentalist
Genre: F/M, Secrets, Undercover, Witch Grace Van Pelt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-05
Updated: 2017-10-05
Packaged: 2019-01-09 09:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12273219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tortoises_in_love/pseuds/tortoises_in_love
Summary: “Grace? Grace!” she startled, looking up at the professor.“Hm?” she asked, blinking dazedly. Professor Endrews sighed.“I asked if you would demonstrate for us, please.” She gestured to the potato on the desk, Grace blinked again.“Oh, yes of course.” pulling out her wand she flicked it at the potato which quickly morphed into a dormouse.





	1. Chapter 1

“Grace? Grace!” she startled, looking up at the professor. 

“Hm?” she asked, blinking dazedly. Professor Endrews sighed. 

“I asked if you would demonstrate for us, please.” She gestured to the potato on the desk, Grace blinked again. 

“Oh, yes of course.” pulling out her wand she flicked it at the potato which quickly morphed into a dormouse. Professor Endrews sighed. 

“That was very nice Miss O’Brien but as the rest of the class has not yet mastered the art of nonverbal spells, I was hoping you might help us on that front.” Grace blinked again. 

“Oh, sorry.” she said, ducking her head as she blushed. Shaking her head Professor Endrews got on with the lesson, explaining the proper way to pronounce the spell in question, since they wouldn’t start work on nonverbal spells for another two years.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red John

Jayne stared, his heart pounding as he listened dully to the roaring in his ears. 

Red John

Sitting, right there, less than five feet in front of him. Every muscle in his body was rigid, he was afraid to blink for fear he might vanish, might wake up from this dream. 

“Forget about me.” he said, though Jayne hardly heard over the roaring. He had to be sure. No mistakes. Lisbon would insist. 

She wouldn’t like this, might never forgive him. He could live with that. He had to. Red John had to die. No options, no options. He couldn’t believe it worked.


	3. Chapter 3

“It’s not fair, you’ve always been so much better than the rest of us.” Jerry complained, they were laying out in the O’Brien’s backyard, more like a field really. “Now you’re going away.”

“It’s not like you’ll never see me again.” Grace said, dumping grass on his head with a giggle. “It’s just europe, I’ll hardly be gone a year before I’m back.”

“Why do you have to go to auror training in England anyway? What’s wrong with America?” He made a face. 

“Cause dummy, they have better tainers. I’ll get the best possible training partner, the most experience and I’ll be working under Harry Potter himself, what could be better than that?” Jerry made a face and she knew she’d won. 

She’d miss her brother, sure, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. He wasn’t going to miss it. She grinned, she’d make contacts at the Ministry, she’d climb the ranks and before long who knew? Maybe she’d get her own team. Daydreams danced in her head and Jerry sighed, knowing the look in his sister's eye meant she was gone to the world. Sometimes, he mused, having a witch as a sister was very difficult.


	4. Chapter 4

“It’s a solution.” He said. Grace made a face. 

“It’s a terrible solution.” she grouched, hands on hips, though she wouldn’t meet his eyes. 

“Auror O’Brien, look at me.” breathing through her nose she looked up, meeting his gaze. “You screwed up, it happens. You fell in love on the job, you got distracted. Fraternization with an assumed target, by that I have the right, as your director, to take you off this case effective immediately and assign you to Magical Mishaps in Olympia, you’ll be knee deep in cow manure and stoners. Do you understand me?” Grace bowed her head. 

“Yes Director Fischer.” she said, sedated. She bit her lip. She hadn’t meant for anything to happen with Wayne. She’d thought she had everything under control. She had been wrong. She could not be wrong again.


	5. Chapter 5

“He’s gone, sir.” The Auror in charge, Mellsby, said, one long scratch freely bleeding into his eye. Grace was no better, laid up in St. Angora’s with a cursed leg and several open wounds. 

“Damnit.” Director Fischer said, stalking around his office like an irate tiger. He bit a thumbnail, eyes flashing dangerously. “I’ll have to call Potter,” he made a face. “I hate calling Potter.” 

“Sir?” Auror Mellsby asked, unsure what he meant. Fischer sighed, sitting down behind his desk as he steepled his fingers. 

“Michael Munroe is an English Citizen, what’s more he’s a former member of Hogwarts. That places him in the Ministries jurisdiction, but,” he added, face unreadable. “He fled to America, which makes him our problem.” he sighed threw his nose, a soft nasal sound that somehow sent shivers down Mellsby’s back. “This means a bloody joint operation.” he chewed on his lip. “Who knows what Monroe’s capable of at this point. He has no wand that we know of, but he’s proficient enough in wandless magic to cause significant damage. And he’s known to seek safety amidst no-maj’s. That’s a problem, if he stops using magic there’s precious little we can use to track his movements.” He growled, running his hands over his face and pulling his hair, making it stand on end. 

“Very well sir, who would you assign to such a task force?” Mellsby asked, Fischer thought briefly of marrying the man, cool as a cucumber through everything. Even this damn magipolitical mess. 

“You, I want you to lead it. Report directly to me, you can pick your own team. Doubtless Potter will choose his own people and send them our way.”

“Very well sir, I’ll be taking O’Brien if that’s alright. Once she’s released from Angoras.” Fischer nodded absently. 

“Very well, keep it small as you can. I’ll call Potter now, best to get it over with. I hope the bastards sleeping.” he growled as he picked up his phone.


	6. Chapter 6

“Agent Rigsby, Agent Cho, this is Agent Grace Vanpelt, she’s a transfer to our team.” Grace smiled, holding out her hand to her new colleages, keeping her face pleasant as she read their expressions. Rigsby was attracted to her, that much was obvious. She considered the benefits of leading him on and dismissed them, too risky. Cho was more of a mistery, unreadable as far as expression, she’d have to keep an eye on him. As for the other one; “Jayne, this is Agent Vanpelt. Vanpelt, this our independent consultant, Patrick Jayne.” He looked like his file, she thought. Only sadder. His eyes looked her over, tea cup dangling from his fingers. She kept her expression pleasant as ever. 

“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” she offered her hand to Jayne, wondering if he’d take it. He didn’t. He hummed at her, and then proceeded to show off. 

Grace bit her lip. She liked him. That wasn’t good. He was unstable, much was clear. She wondered why Lisbon continued to use him, he clearly couldn’t be reliable. He’d be a tricky one to deceive, she’d gone over her cover a thousand times, but with him she’d have to be even more believable. She’d have to buy into her own legend, believe it more than he did. Only then would he be convinced. 

Heaving an inner sigh Grace committed herself to her Vanpelt persona, ditzy, ambitious, loyal, earnest Vanpelt. Wears her heart on her sleeve Vanpelt. Smiles easily Vanpelt. Trusts easily Vanpelt. 

It was similar to her own self, with key differences of course. She wore nothing on her sleeve, though she smiled often and easily. Early on she’d found people saw the smile and never looked beyond it. Jayne would though. She had to sink deeper, bury O’Brien, become Vanpelt. Convince them that she trusted them, never let on that she truly suspected everyone.


	7. Chapter 7

“He’s taken a new alias.” Auror Grimsby puffed, running into the office wielding a sheaf of papers. He dropped them onto Grace’s desk as Mellsby and MacDuff came over. 

“‘Red John?’ That’s not much of an alias.” Grace said, raising an eyebrow. 

“It’s what the No-Maj’s are calling him, look, he’s started killing again.” he flipped a page and pointed to the picture, non-magical, non-moving. “Not with magic, or else we would have caught on sooner.”

“‘The Jayne Family Massacre’” Grace read, frowning. “That poor man.”

“He shouldn’t have insulted Monroe on television.” MacDuff said and Grace flicked him. “What? He shouldn’t have.”

“I’m sure he’s aware of that, ass.” she said, looking over the report, reading through the history. “How did we not catch this sooner? He’s killed what, at least twenty people?” 

“How do we even know this is Monroe? Could just be a No-Maj killer?” MacDuff asked, shooting a look at Grimsby. 

“He left this, at the last crime scene.” he pointed to another picture, on the last page. It was crime scene evidence, found in the room with Mrs. Jayne. A single, shimmering, scale. “The no-maj’s think it’s a piece of the little girls toy, that it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Is that?” Grace started, squinting at the picture. 

“It’s a dragon scale, we’ve confirmed as of an hour ago. We had it retrieved.” Grimsby nodded at the picture. “Specifically the scale of a Two Tailed Cave Crawler, one of the rarest breeds, and more importantly the kind of dragon that Monroe spent years training.”

“You think he still has the beast?” Mellsby asked. 

“No, there’s been no sign of dragons of that size or caliber anywhere in North America, and they’re not exactly easy to hide. It was most likely a keepsake, something he carries with him.” 

“We have to be sure.” Mellsby said, leaning back, one hand stroking his chin as he thought. “The Ministries division is still chasing leads across europe, another group is searching the rest of the american continent. This is the first real lead we’ve had in months.” his dark eyes flickered as his thought. “If this is him then this is the first mistake he’s made in years. We can’t afford to waste it.” his eyes flicked up, catching Grace as she straightened. “In this the no-maj’s have us beat in non-magical investigative measures. If it’s true, as it seems to be, that Monroe has taken to living without magic. We need their help.” 

“That’s tough boss, you know how no-maj relations are.” MacDuff said, rubbing his head with a sigh. Mellsby nodded, he knew.

“I’m not suggesting a joint operation,” he started, slowly as though he were still thinking it out. “But an undercover one.” his eyes settled on Grace once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure how far I'm going to take this, we'll see I guess. I also wasn't sure how to format it. Also I have no beta reader, so there's that.

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this sitting around for a while. It's complete canon divergence after season 3 of the mentalist, I know Red John turned out to be (SPOILERS) not the dude that Jayne shot but I liked that moment as the beginning for this story. I always felt there aught to be more to Van Pelt. She was just so two-dimensional. They give Rigsby and Cho such depth and consideration but then all over her 'episodes' revolve around the men I her life, not her. So I wanted to write something where she was the hero of the story. Or at least, as close as makes no nevermind. 
> 
> Also Amanda Righetti is awesome sauce so, there.


End file.
